- [Announcer] Support for "Austin Insight" comes from Sally and James Gavin and also from Daniel L. Skret.

- It's a strange thing to have something you love kind of hurt you and it's, you know, you feel a little bit betrayed.

- It's not the river's fault, you know, but it's hard not to try to want to place blame on something.

- [Laura] The Guadalupe is everything to the people who live along its banks.

One year ago, it nearly took everything.

- We lost 44 people, I believe, between here and that tree down there.

- My nine-year-old said, "Are we gonna die, mommy?"

(sniffs) Excuse me.

- [Laura] What followed, mourning, rebuilding, and repairing the relationship with the river where so many lost so much.

- We are a lot stronger than any of us ever thought we were.

- We're resilient and we love a challenge and we haven't met a challenge that we cannot defeat or meet.

(soft piano music) - Thanks so much for watching "Austin InSight."

I'm Laura Laughead here along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County.

Last 4th of July, this community experienced catastrophic flooding.

We're back one year later to see how far they've come since and how much farther they still have to go.

(water whooshing) - Hey, you wanna go have river time?

I say that and my kid and my dog jump up and head for the door, put on my river shoes, and ready to go, so.

Hank, you are not making good choices, you mud skipper.

Oh, we all know each other.

We have street dances here, you know, and everybody knows everybody.

We've had a lot of loss and that can't be understated, but we have to move forward.

(water whooshing) - [Resident] It was apocalyptic.

- [Reporter] Rescue teams have been working through the night to find survivors as more than 20 people remain unaccounted for.

- [Reporter] And I'm assuming it is that gentleman who first responders are trying to help out right there and that water is moving fast.

- We had no idea that a 30 to 35 foot wall of water was gonna coming down the Guadalupe River that morning.

- [Resident] This was all underwater at one point.

- [Resident] Place looked like a war zone.

(soft piano music) (soft piano music continues) (soft piano music continues) - We lost 44 people, I believe, between here and that tree down there.

- [Laura] It's hard to believe this is where we first met Darrin Potter a year ago.

- Basically see where the water just came through here and just demolished everything.

It's just horrific, the loss of life on this stretch of river.

It's such a beautiful place.

It's my happy place.

This used to be just green forest.

You couldn't even see the river from here and now it's... Now you can see miles both directions.

- [Laura] He's lived on the river here in Ingram for a quarter of a century.

His house made it out with minimal damage, but most of the street wasn't so lucky.

- This house right here is being rebuilt as we speak.

This one here was hauled off.

Most of them would have been bulldozed if we didn't have the groups of people that showed up to muck them out, take the drywall and the insulation out so they could dry.

- [Laura] Darrin has spent the last 12 months as Ingram's unofficial information officer, connecting survivors with needed help.

- People walked up here with literally borrowed shoes and borrowed clothes.

They lost every single thing they owned.

You know, we didn't have time to wait on committees and lawyers, and still people calling me every day, needing something, needing help with something.

- [Laura] Now he's focused on the construction effort and river repair.

- [Darrin] We're well ahead of schedule.

- The physical rebuild is steady, but the emotional one is taking a little longer.

Do you look at the river differently now?

- I do, I do.

I try not to because I'm a realist person, but it's still heartbreaking.

- What is your relationship with the river like now?

- It's a strange thing to have something you love kind of hurt you and it's, you know, you feel a little bit betrayed.

- [Laura] That feeling isn't unique around here.

- I've grown up in Texas most of my life and the Guadalupe's been a huge part of my life.

We'll go down there and we might stand on the banks and we might fish, but you don't see us getting in the water.

We don't swim in it.

We don't, I don't touch it.

It's hard not to still feel a little bit of fear.

That water still smells the same, like it smelled that morning.

- [Laura] In that morning, Corey Jones and her husband, Spencer Offenbacker, came close to losing everything.

The night of the floods, the storm woke up Corey several times.

They lost power and then came a terrifying alert on her phone.

- And at the bottom, in all caps, it said, "Seek higher ground."

And I started to panic and I woke my husband up.

There was water at the front door and Spencer turned and looked at me and he said, "I need you to lock in.

I need you to get the kids dressed.

We have to get to the roof now."

- [Laura] Water rushed in from the front and the back.

With their two children, Corey and Spencer, an Army veteran, climbed a ladder to the roof.

They even helped rescue a neighbor.

- The water before, this is a few hours afterwards.

The water before was up to this ridge here.

My nine-year-old's in between my legs and I was on the phone with my mom at the time and my nine-year-old said, "Are we gonna die, Mommy?"

(sniffs) Excuse me.

And Spencer and I are just looking at each other.

We were cold and we were shaking and being pelted with rain and the water wouldn't stop rising.

- [Laura] Spencer's military training helped them stay focused.

- Before this, I would've told you, I don't know what I would've done.

- But an ordinary human, in extraordinary situations, they're capable of great things.

- [Laura] A year later, they're back on the property living in a donated RV.

- We go to my mom's or a hotel during big storms because my kids are, they have panic attacks.

- [Laura] Spencer is rebuilding the house himself, something they say has been therapeutic.

- We're resilient and we love a challenge and we haven't met a challenge that we cannot defeat or meet.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Laura] But some things can never be replaced.

- You walk in and your whole life is just scattered and soaked and, you know, even just now, just in the last few weeks, I start remembering, "Oh, that one thing.

Oh no, I don't think that survived."

You know, "Oh my God."

You know?

- [Laura] At least Spencer's service dog, Dewey, survived, although he lost an eye and a leg in the storm.

- Spencer got us to the roof and went back for Dewey.

But Dewey is afraid of water.

Because he was so afraid of the water, Spencer couldn't pull him out of it, he was not budging.

- I just left the kennel door open.

- Yes.

- But he's got a warrior's heart.

- [Laura] What do you think it will take for this place, your home, this community, to truly feel like itself again, do you think?

- It never will.

- I don't think it ever will.

- That is a traumatic event that changed everybody's lives.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so now we are just building what is our new normal.

- Before this flood, I might have known a few of my very next door neighbors, but afterwards, I know every single one of these people.

We are all incredibly close and it'll never be the same in a good way too.

- [Laura] And one day, Corey hopes they can play in the river again.

- It's not the river's fault, you know, but it's hard not to try to want to place blame on something.

(water whooshing) - I need to get my air hooked up real quick.

I'm pretty sure the sun's cooking us, but... Phew.

- [Laura] Redeeming this river has become diver, Ryan Logue's, mission.

- When I start it's at 2700.

- [Laura] A year after the floods, the Kerrville father still spends most days in or around the Guadalupe, cleaning up debris that makes it dangerous to swim.

- Need to get in that water fast.

Whew.

It seemed like the river was forgotten.

You know, why are we not worried about, you know, primarily getting this river clean?

- [Laura] According to the Texas Department of Emergency Management, more than five million cubic yards of debris have been removed from flood impacted areas.

And there's still work to do.

- Everything from full size cypress trees, we're still pulling trees out that size, but we're also pulling out hoods of cars, personal effects, I guess you would, that's the easiest way of saying it is, you know, people's T-shirts, their clothes, their pictures from their room.

There's still a lot of that that remains.

- [Laura] In the immediate aftermath, Ryan searched the river with the Cajun Navy.

Those searches may have ended, but for him, the work never did.

- 10 months out, we're not saving anybody.

The one thing we can do is help some souls heal again.

Help them find a normality within the chaos that happened out here.

Yep, here's the ignite, or it's the... Oh, you think it'd still ignite?

Nah.

- [Laura] Now he helps organize efforts on the water and land with volunteers like Darrin.

- This is why you have an old man and a young man.

- [Laura] It's grueling.

But it's personal.

- Nope, that's down there strong.

- [Laura] Ryan grew up with the father of flood victim Cile Steward, and Ryan's daughter is the same age.

Cile Steward and Jeff Ramsey are still missing.

- I'll look for 'em for the rest of my life.

I'll look for Jeff Ramsey for the rest of my life, as long as I swim in this water.

I will always hold onto that hope that I can find her.

- [Laura] A year after the flood water receded, the river still bears the scars of what happened.

So do the people who live along it.

But the river also left behind something else.

- We are a lot stronger than any of us ever thought we were.

That's what I hope people bring out of this, is that mankind, we're not nearly as divided as they've always told us we are.

- [Laura] For some people, the Guadalupe will always be the place where everything changed.

For others, it's still the place they taught their kids to swim, the place they take their dog, and the place they still call home.

- It's part of our life and we refuse to let that part go.

It's home.

It's home.

- We are joined now by the mayor of Kerrville, Joe Herring, who has helped lead this city through one of the worst natural disasters in Texas history.

Mayor Herring, I can't imagine the terrible memories that this week must conjure for you, so we really appreciate you taking the time to be with us today.

- Thank you for telling our story.

- So Mayor, can you take us back to that night a year ago?

Can you walk us through the moment you truly realized the scale of what had happened, that essentially an inland tsunami had rolled through Central Texas?

- I was awakened by a phone call from the city manager who said that the park was flooded.

The park floods.

Honestly, I didn't think he'd been here long enough to know what a flood was.

And so when he sent me a picture, I realized, it was a lot of water.

But the moment, and I don't know that I've told anyone, the moment I realized we had a problem, I had already signed the declaration, the disaster declaration, and someone was on a phone and pulled it down and he said, "There's a report that 40 girls are missing from Mystic."

Now, it wasn't 40 at the end.

It was way too many, but at that moment we realized something horrible had happened just 20 miles up river.

- Even hearing that now hits like a punch to the gut a year later, I can't even imagine what it was like in those initial moments, when it's so confusing and you don't know what's happening and everything is so unprecedented at every turn.

I can't imagine how difficult that was then and even to recount it now.

As mayor in such an unprecedented situation, what were your first priorities?

- My priority was first to do the things I'm legally required to do, which is sign a declaration and ask for help, an official letter to the governor.

This is beyond our capacity to respond, and help arrived.

And then as the days progressed, my job was not to pretend I'm emergency management coordinator.

I'm not.

I run a printing company.

My job was to do what I was legally required to do and then to communicate.

- Now a year later, help, as you mentioned, poured in from near and far.

That has been the one silver lining and you have 150 million dollars in donations.

That's also unprecedented.

You had recovery leaders from around the country saying how unique the help effort here in Kerrville in the immediate aftermath was even to the professionals.

Now a year later, how would you describe, with all that help, where Kerrville stands in its recovery effort?

- You know, there are lots of things still going on.

We're still searching for two missing victims, a little girl, Cile Steward, and a man about my age named Jeff Ramsey.

That work is being undertaken by the state of Texas in one of our principal lakes and downstream from that principal lake.

In addition, we are working with the Upper Guadalupe River Authority to have a warning system, and not just sirens.

Sirens alone are not enough.

Cell phone notifications are not enough.

You have to know when to send them, when to send the message.

And so a series of gauges and monitors have been placed up and down the South Fork and the North Fork and when the volume of the river or the amount of rain or a combination of those things occurs, then it's time to start warning people.

And lastly, mental health and the trauma that so many people went through has been a focus, and so philanthropic efforts have provided mental health services free of charge.

I think this week especially, right before the 4th of July, the thing I've been asking people most that I'm around is, "How are you doing?

Have you been able to talk to someone?

Are you planning to be with people this weekend?"

Because the message I've been trying to say is, you are not alone and help is available and we're going to get through this together.

- The mental health conversation, especially this week, is indeed such an important one and we know cases of PTSD in this area have gone up.

We've heard from people who, even when it rains, they have panic attacks, something as simple as a drizzle.

You know, you mentioned a lot of the progress over the last 12 months.

What are your top priorities going into the next 12 months?

- Well, the city has lots of infrastructure that's being rebuilt, mainly parks, and we'll be working on a lot of that.

But honestly, to me, our economy was hit hard by this and so there's lots of rebuilding that's not physical rebuilding.

It's a feeling of, of confidence and resilience and grit.

And I think we're seeing that all over town, but during these next 12 months, I hope people are not only acting on resilience, but believing it affects them too.

- Lastly, as we look ahead, as we move forward, what gives you hope for the future of Kerrville and the future of Kerr County?

- I don't know that, that people who don't live here have seen this, but what I have seen is neighbors helping neighbors, not only rescue, not only helping muck out a home that's filled with mud, but someone dropping off a casserole because there's no food in the house or bringing by clothes when they don't have clothes.

You know, neighbors were helping search, but they were also feeding the hungry, they were clothing the naked, and they were finding shelter for those who no longer had a house.

Well, that resilience and grit is still alive here.

- Indeed, it's in your DNA.

- Indeed.

In our water.

- In your water.

Well said.

It is.

That's been a common theme in every story we've heard.

The silver lining, an uncommon resilience in an uncommon time.

- Correct.

- And if there's any community that can figure out how to move forward, it's this one.

- Thank you.

- Well, Mayor Joe Herring of Kerrville, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and for your leadership over this past year.

- You're kind.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for telling our story.

(soft piano music) - The flood event last summer spanned much of Central Texas.

It wasn't just here along the Guadalupe.

Heavy rain and flooding hit the San Saba River, the San Gabriel through Williamson County, Hamilton Creek and Burnet County, and Cow and Big Sandy Creeks in Travis County.

Local government reporter, Sam Stark, went back out to Big Sandy Creek to check in with some of the families affected to see how they're doing one year later.

- [Sherry] Be careful, this dark mud, it'll make you slide.

- [Sam] Sisters, Sherry McCutcheon and Terry Traugott, walk around a now empty property.

- The house sat this way.

- Okay.

- And when it was over, it had turned it this way.

And you can see where it hit that tree.

- [Sam] Before July 5th, 2025, a home stood here for about 50 years, a place where the sisters and their close-knit family spent countless hours together.

It's where their two brothers, Doug West and Gary Traugott, and their mom, Betty West, lived.

It's also where they were when Big Sandy Creek surged far beyond its banks.

They were three of the 10 bodies recovered in the days following the flood.

- July 4th.

Oh, man.

When they even talk about July 4th, it makes me sad.

Especially when everybody's like, "Oh, July 4th is coming up.

It's a big celebration."

No, it's not.

It's a heartbreak.

- Coming up on the 5th to me feels a little weird because it marks a whole year that we haven't talked to them or seen them.

You know, it just reminds me how long it's been since we even touched them.

- [Sam] The deadly Big Sandy Creek flood damaged or destroyed dozens of homes on or near the Creek's banks.

Travis County said it has cost about $30 million so far in debris removal, emergency response, and repairs.

Officials expect that number to grow as they complete projects intended to rebuild and improve damaged infrastructure.

- We have no callers.

All those in favor, please raise your hand.

That passes unanimously.

- [Sam] In the fall, Travis County commissioners raised property taxes by a little over 9%.

The commissioners said the new tax dollars were necessary to replenish the county's saving account after all that was spent responding to the disaster and would allow the county to prepare for future natural disasters.

But for many in the community surrounding Sandy Creek, recovery remains a ways off.

- We lost three houses, five cars, all of our livestock, all of our barns, our business.

It wiped everything that we've worked 36 years for right off the earth.

- Yeah.

- [Sam] Brandy Gertsner, Ashlee Willis, and the rest of their family have been living in trailers since last summer.

They say insurance disputes, new floodplain requirements, and the high cost of rebuilding have prevented them from breaking ground on new homes.

- There's not been a lot of positive progression forward in reference to trying to rebuild our lives.

- [Sam] Further, the two said they're concerned that not enough has been done to address the area's vulnerable infrastructure.

Several roads or bridges have not been improved since the disaster.

- My issue with the county currently is pacing.

They are moving at the pace of bureaucracy, not the pace of crisis.

I'm looking at my neighbors and my family and people that I love that are in danger because of the pace of the system.

- [Sam] A Travis County spokesperson said the county is working as quickly as possible on the Big Sandy Creek projects while also balancing work required in other county precincts.

They said it will take as long as is necessary to ensure the projects are done effectively.

(water whooshing) While the community near Big Sandy Creek takes those challenging steps towards rebuilding and healing, many residents say their faith in humanity was restored by the volunteers, neighbors, and strangers who showed up when all felt lost 12 months ago.

- Let me tell you who stepped it up, who stepped up.

It was the community.

- Yeah, they were there.

- Everybody out there was neighbors.

- Every time they do anything, they always make sure we're included.

We never lived here except for one year in high school, but they act like we belong.

You know, that's a good feeling.

- The amount of just normal human people that showed up from all different walks of life, all different religions, all different politics, and like we just work together as humans.

- When it comes, with people, humanity is good at its core.

- Back here along the Guadalupe, things look a lot different this summer.

For one, Camp Mystic, a sort of focal point for the flooding disaster, is closing this summer.

The camp just announced its bankruptcy.

It's facing lawsuits from the families of some of the 25 campers and two counselors who died.

They're also navigating new camp safety regulations state lawmakers passed in a special session last summer.

Camps now can't get a license if they have cabins in a floodplain with a few narrow exceptions.

Camps also must have a state approved emergency plan, an emergency weather radio, and a camp-wide emergency warning system.

They must also have broadband internet.

Separate legislation set aside $50 million in grants to help local communities get flood warning sirens.

Another 28 million is meant to help improve weather forecasting, flood management, and more timely flood warnings.

The scars from last summer's devastating flooding on the landscape, the economy, and the people are clear and long-lasting, but so is the hopefulness evident in the thousands of people who donated to flood relief funds, who converged on Kerr County to help, and who are still here helping one year later.

We are a PBS station, after all, so we can't help but once again point to Fred Rogers and the unforgettable advice his mother gave him about dealing with difficult times.

- She would say, always look for the helpers.

There will always be helpers, you know, even just on the sidelines.

That's why I think that if news programs could make a conscious effort of showing rescue teams, of showing who, medical people, anybody who is coming into a place where there's a tragedy to be sure that they include that because if you look for the helpers, you'll know that there's hope.

- Next time on "Austin Insight," we'll hear from more helpers here on the ground in Kerr County working to get this community back on its feet.

That's part two of our look back at the July 4th floods.

Thanks so much for watching.

(soft piano music) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin Insight" comes from Sally and James Gavin and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(bright music)